Pericles

Who: leading politician, excellent orator; (elected) general 15 times consecutively beginning in 443 BCE

What: championed a more egalitarian democracy; foreigner companion Aspasia-children not citizens due to his law; interested in Sophist ideas; mocked in theater frequently (policies, love life, personal appearance); incited Peloponnesian War (431-403 BCE); died in 429 BCE from plague, which probably led to Athens’ downfall in the war

Contributions: most important: pay for public service jobs, poor men able to work in and for government; law requiring a citizen have two Athenian parents (451 BCE); supported naval conquest against Sparta, Corinth, and Persian territories or interests; in 446-445 BCE, made treaty with Sparta meant to last 30 years and preserve Athens’ control of Delian League; dropped aggressive foreign policy; exuberant amount of funds on public building programs--the Acropolis

When: Golden Age; 495 – 429 BCE

Where: Athens

Significance: Gave common and poorer men more rights in the democracy; persuasive skills could start wars

Pg. 59-61; 82-85